1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system and method for dynamically updating voice recognition commands stored in a vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to dynamically updating the voice recognition commands for various in-vehicle devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Automobiles equipped with speech-recognition and text-to-speech capabilities simplify tasks that would otherwise require a driver to take away his/her attention from driving. The uses of speech recognition range from controlling internal car temperature and radio volume to driver authentication and theft detection.
Current voice recognition systems offered on production automobiles allow a user (e.g., driver or passenger) to use dedicated, on-board voice recognition commands to control in-vehicle functions. For example, for in-vehicle radio or entertainment system controls, several voice recognition commands are available to the driver/passenger for choosing a specific preset radio station, radio frequency or multimedia source (e.g., CD or DVD). All of these voice recognition commands must, however, already be stored in the memory of the control system of the vehicle. These voice recognition commands cannot be updated without having to replace the storage media. In other words, the voice database for storing these voice recognition commands resides on a static system. If new features or commands are introduced, the storage media must be replaced—limiting the ability of the system to be updated on a continual basis.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional in-vehicle voice recognition system 10. This conventional system 10 generally includes a voice recognition engine 12, a database 14 and a microphone 16. The available voice recognition commands are stored within the database 14, and are typically stored on a DVD that is provided with the vehicle. As discussed above, to load a new voice command in a conventional database of the vehicle would require issuing a new DVD, for example, and loading the information on the DVD into the vehicle.
The microphone 16 converts the utterance by the driver (e.g., “air conditioning on”) into pulse code modulation (PCM) data, which is then transmitted to the voice recognition engine 12. The voice recognition engine 12 compares the PCM data to the available voice recognition commands stored in the database 14. If the voice recognition engine 12 matches the PCM data to a voice command, the voice recognition engine 12 sends the voice command, or recognized utterance 20, to the target in-vehicle device (e.g., air conditioner) and the function is executed (e.g., the air conditioner turns on).
When a conventional voice recognition system recognizes a command, the system creates a file format called PCM data. This PCM data is basically a voice file of the utterance. In order for the voice recognition engine 12 to recognize a human utterance, the engine 12 must translate this PCM file into a recognizable format. This translated phonetic data is commonly referred to in the voice recognition industry as an ESR baseform. ESR baseforms are the fundamental linguistic representations for how the system will recognize a voice recognition command. These ESR baseforms are matched with a database of available commands in some sort of storage medium and as a result, a command is executed if the command is correctly matched. The voice recognition engine 12 will perform all of the translating and processing. This technology is well known within the voice recognition industry.
Today, vehicles often include a satellite or digital radio receiver, which offers an uninterrupted, near CD quality radio broadcast. For example, a person could drive from San Francisco, Calif., to Washington, D.C., without ever having to change the radio station. The driver would never hear static interfering with his/her favorite radio station, and the music would be interrupted by few or no commercials. XM Satellite radio and Sirius Satellite radio have both launched such a service. Currently, a driver cannot use a voice command to select a digital radio channel by name. Instead, the driver may only audibly select a digital radio station by the station number. With more than 100 channels typically available through a satellite radio, choosing the digital station by channel number is difficult.
New digital radio stations are regularly added to the existing radio broadcast services. Even if the driver could use a voice command to select a radio station by name, the voice recognition commands would need to be updated every time a new station is added to the broadcast system. Otherwise, a driver would not be able to select the newly added radio station(s) as easily as the radio stations that existed when the satellite radio was purchased.
Therefore, there is a need for a system for dynamically updating the voice recognition database of a vehicle to accommodate the rapid expansion and penetration of voice recognition into the automotive industry.